Byrne rushed over the instant Ritter fell.
When he raised a hand to check and found that Ritter was no longer breathing, the tall swordsmanship instructor's expression changed.
The swordsmanship students around them descended into chaos.
"Instructor Ritter is dead!"
"Call the police! Hurry!"
Amid the panic, a few students kept their heads and immediately ran outside.
Instructor Desi, meanwhile, rushed over and glared viciously at Arthur.
"What did you do?"
"Why did you kill Ritter?"
His voice was shrill and accusatory.
In an instant, he drew everyone's attention. Even the receptionist who had just run over from the front looked at Arthur with shock and suspicion.
Under everyone's scrutiny, Arthur merely sighed inwardly.
He was marveling at the good fortune mixed in with his bad luck.
Clearly, he had become embroiled in a murder.
That was utterly awful, but fortunately, his name would once again become known throughout South Los. Arthur had thought he would receive no extra XP for quite some time, at least until the Swordsmanship Tournament began. He hadn't expected an opportunity to turn up now.
Almost instinctively, Arthur looked at Desi in front of him.
Unlike the young, strong Byrne and Ritter, Desi was at least forty. Not only was he balding, but his temples were gray, and deep crow's-feet marked the corners of his eyes.
Now, as he glared at Arthur, those crow's-feet seemed to flare out, making him look a little like a chicken with its feathers ruffled.
Neither his gaze nor his expression concealed his anger.
He seemed utterly convinced that Arthur had killed Ritter.
"Tell me why!"
He shouted again, gripping the hilt of his practice sword tightly.
He looked as though he wanted nothing more than to draw his sword and cut Arthur down.
Arthur's immediate thought was: He's trying too hard to cover something up!
The thief crying thief was such a common act!
Of course, it was also possible that anger had clouded his judgment.
Arthur couldn't yet tell which it was, but he knew what he should do.
He raised his hand and delivered a hard slap.
Smack!
The force of the slap spun Instructor Desi around on the spot.
"You..."
Smack!
Desi had only just regained his footing and tried to speak when Arthur struck him with a backhanded slap.
The two consecutive slaps left Instructor Desi thoroughly stunned.
Only after seeing Desi standing there in a daze did Arthur speak.
"Calmed down yet?"
Arthur sounded as though he was asking a question, but he gave Instructor Desi no chance to answer before continuing, "Ritter and I were having a swordsmanship match, but we were still at least a meter apart. Our wooden swords hadn't even touched. How could I have killed him?"
As he spoke, Arthur reenacted the scene for everyone.
Throughout the entire process, he never once looked at Instructor Desi, as though he had never intended to explain anything to him in the first place.
Arthur knew perfectly well that explaining himself to Desi would only drag him into an endless argument.
Whether Desi was a murderer trying to cover his tracks or an innocent man blinded by anger, he would pull Arthur into the quagmire of proving his own innocence.
Proving one's innocence was no easy task.
Arthur certainly had no intention of cutting open his belly just to let people count how many bowls of jelly he had eaten.
So he chose his own approach.
It worked reasonably well.
Recovering from the shock of seeing someone die, the students began nodding.
"Yes, that's what happened."
"Instructor Ritter just started convulsing and collapsed."
"The two of them really hadn't touched."
The students began agreeing with Arthur's account.
Instructor Desi, however, clearly disagreed.
"Non-"
Smack!
Arthur, who considered himself poor with words, once again used action to stop the man's unreasonable antics. Then he looked at Instructor Byrne beside him with complete seriousness.
"Instructor Byrne, please take this gentleman to the lounge to rest. He's suffered too great a shock and shouldn't remain here right now."
"All right."
Byrne, who had a somewhat simple, honest disposition, immediately nodded.
As Byrne dragged Desi toward the lounge, Arthur, who was poor with words, spoke again.
"An older swordsman losing his head at the sight of a dead man. He's not even as composed as the youngsters here."
His voice was neither loud nor soft, and he placed particular emphasis on "older," "swordsman," and "losing his head."
The young swordsmanship students around him instinctively looked at Desi's retreating back.
Already at the lounge, Desi clenched his fists and looked ready to turn around and fight Arthur, but Byrne dragged him inside.
That reaction only confirmed Arthur's words, leaving several nearby students looking disappointed.
Arthur, however, felt it was a bit of a shame.
Byrne was too nice.
If Byrne hadn't held Desi back, Arthur would definitely have given him another slap.
More regrettably, there were simply too many people here. Otherwise, he would have killed Desi outright.
After all, he wasn't good with words, was he?
There was nothing for it. He could only let his hands do more of the talking.
Not far away, Amy watched Arthur with an added sparkle in her eyes.
There was nothing else behind it. The girl from the South Los countryside simply found the way Arthur had slapped Desi deeply satisfying.
She wanted to learn how to do it, too.
The students around them were much more straightforward. They began speculating about Arthur's true identity.
He had easily defeated Byrne.
And with a dead man lying there, he had slapped Desi three times in a row.
He was certainly no ordinary person.
Some thought he was a wandering knight with exceptional swordsmanship. Others thought he was the son of a wealthy merchant, while still others believed Arthur must be a nobleman's son.
Their guesses covered all sorts of possibilities, but none was right.
Until-
"You?!"
When Maltz arrived at the first-floor training hall of the Jorjok Swordsmanship Club with two patrol officers, he spotted Arthur immediately.
At once, the soon-to-retire Third-Rank Police Officer felt his temples throb.
Maltz wanted to enjoy a happy retirement, and the last thing he wanted was to get involved with someone like Arthur, who looked like trouble through and through.
So, after returning yesterday, he had promptly merged the Evil Spirit Lark Murder Case with the Chief Lark Murder Case and handed it over to someone specifically assigned to it.
And him?
Naturally, he would continue waiting peacefully for retirement.
Who could have known he would run into Arthur again first thing this morning?
And at another murder scene, no less!
Trouble! Nothing but trouble!
Should I transfer to another district?
Maltz kept grumbling inwardly, but he had no choice but to steel himself and walk over.
The days of Constables were over.
Ever since the new law had passed three years ago, every police officer had been required to handle murder cases like this with care, or face extremely serious consequences. That was how things normally worked, anyway, though they often weren't normal.
But someone on the verge of retirement like him was different.
He fell into that rare category where the normal rules applied.
One misstep, and he would not only lose his pension but also find himself implicated.
"Officer, do you know this gentleman?"
Among the already curious swordsmanship students, someone immediately asked a follow-up question upon hearing Maltz.
"Of course!"
"You should know this gentleman too. He's the famous-
"'Medium' Arthur Credos!"
Not wanting trouble, Maltz did everything he could to flatter Arthur.
Everyone around them drew a startled breath upon hearing Arthur's name.
Gasp!
At that same moment, a gaze brimming with malice fixed on Arthur.
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